In this guide
At a glance
- Vibe
- Ceremonial, monumental and busy with bucket-list sightseeing
- Time needed
- Half a day, or a full day with the Abbey and War Rooms
- Best day
- Weekday mornings; the Abbey is closed to sightseers on Sundays
- Travel zone
- 1
- Walkability
- 5/5
- Typical spend
- ££
Best for
Nearest stations
- WestminsterJubileeDistrictCircle
- St James's ParkDistrictCircle
- Charing CrossNorthernBakerloo
Westminster is the London of postcards: the Elizabeth Tower, the Palace of Westminster, the Abbey where every English monarch since 1066 has been crowned, and the long ceremonial run of Whitehall up to Trafalgar Square.
It is also the most concentrated sightseeing in the city. Almost everything worth seeing sits within a fifteen-minute walk, which is both the appeal and the problem.
Westminster has its own share of the commemorative plaques marking where notable people lived or worked - see them on our interactive map.
Why visit — and who should skip it
Come here if it is your first trip to London. This is the non-negotiable half day — the landmarks that make the city recognisable, all within walking distance of each other, most of them viewable for free from the street.
Skip it if you have done it before and are not going inside anything. Westminster rewards a visit when you have booked the Abbey or the War Rooms. Walking past the outside of buildings you have already photographed is a thin way to spend a morning, and the pavements are crowded all day.
Top sights and activities
- The Elizabeth Tower and Palace of Westminster — Best photographed from the far side of Westminster Bridge. UK residents can book a tower climb; everyone can tour Parliament on Saturdays and during recess.
- Westminster Abbey — Nearly a thousand years of coronations, royal tombs and Poets’ Corner. Closed to sightseers on Sundays. Allow two hours, and take the included audio guide.
The Abbey’s west towers, added in the 1740s - centuries after the rest of the building. 3. Churchill War Rooms — The underground bunker left largely as it was in 1945, with the map room untouched. Book timed entry well ahead. 4. Changing the Guard — At Buckingham Palace at 11:00 on selected days. Horse Guards on Whitehall is smaller and far less crowded, but only runs the full mounted ceremony on Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 11:00 — other days get a shorter inspection instead. There is also a free inspection every day at 16:00 that almost nobody times a visit around. 5. St James’s Park — The best park in central London, with the pelicans and the view from the blue bridge back towards Whitehall. 6. Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery — At the top of Whitehall. The gallery is free and one of the great collections in Europe. 7. Westminster Cathedral — Not the Abbey. A striped Byzantine-style Catholic cathedral ten minutes south, with a lift up its tower for one of the cheapest good views in London.
The Household Cavalry passing the Palace gates. Arrive by 10:15 for a view that isn’t three rows deep.
Key streets and micro-districts
Westminster Bridge and the Palace of Westminster. Photo: Txllxt TxllxT, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Parliament Square
The green at the centre, ringed by twelve statues, with Westminster Abbey on one side and the Palace of Westminster on the other. It is free, always open and unfenced, and you can stand on the grass.
The statues are the reason to linger. Churchill scowling at Parliament, Mandela, Gandhi, Lincoln — and since 2018 Millicent Fawcett, the first woman commemorated here and the only statue in the square made by a woman.
Big Ben is the tower, not the bell. The Elizabeth Tower reopened after five years of restoration and the bell chimes on the hour; tours are for UK residents only, arranged through an MP.
⚠️ The square is often partly fenced for ceremonies, works or demonstrations, and the pavements around Parliament are subject to short-notice closures. A specific photograph is never guaranteed.
Westminster station comes up directly onto the corner, and the Suffragette and Spectre filming locations are both within five minutes.
Whitehall
Trafalgar Square sits at the top of Whitehall, a ten-minute walk from Parliament Square and free to wander.
The government spine running north from Parliament Square to Trafalgar Square, about ten minutes end to end and free the whole way.
Downing Street is gated and has been since 1989 — you see the entrance and the police, not the door. The Cenotaph stands in the middle of the road, and the Banqueting House, the only surviving part of the old Whitehall Palace, has a Rubens ceiling and is ticketed.
Horse Guards is the free ceremony. The full mounted Changing of the King’s Life Guard is at 11am, Monday to Saturday, and 10am on Sunday, and it is far easier to see than the Buckingham Palace version — no crowd barriers, no railings, and you can stand a few feet away.
There is also a free dismounted inspection at 4pm every day, which almost nobody knows about and which takes about ten minutes.
You can walk straight onto the parade ground, which is not obvious from the street — go through the archway.
The full mounted ceremony at Horse Guards — Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 11:00 only. Other days get a shorter inspection at the same time.
Horse Guards between ceremonies — you can walk right onto the parade ground, which is not obvious from the street. There’s a free inspection here every day at 16:00, mounted or not.
St James’s Park and The Mall
The ceremonial route to Buckingham Palace, and the park is the reason to walk it rather than take the Tube — it is the oldest of the Royal Parks and much the prettiest.
The bridge over the lake is the best free view in the area: Buckingham Palace at one end, the towers and turrets of Whitehall at the other, and the whole thing looks like a different city.
There are pelicans, descended from a gift to Charles II in 1664, and they are fed at the lakeside around 2.30pm each day.
Buckingham Palace State Rooms open only in summer, roughly July to September, and are ticketed and timed. The Changing of the Guard at the Palace is free but the crowd is deep — the Horse Guards version ten minutes away is the better watch.
The park is free and open dawn to midnight. St James’s Park station is at the western end, Charing Cross at the eastern.
Victoria Street and Westminster Cathedral
South-west of the Abbey, and mostly offices and chain shops rather than sights — but the cathedral at the end is worth the ten-minute walk and almost nobody makes it.
Westminster Cathedral is not the Abbey. It is the Roman Catholic mother church, finished in 1903 in striped red brick and Byzantine style, and it looks like nothing else in London. Entry to the cathedral is free.
The bell tower is the hidden viewpoint. £10 adult, £5 concession, £22 family, and it has a lift rather than a staircase — the only central London tower view that is not a climb. The gallery sits 210 feet above Victoria Street looking straight down it.
⚠️ Tickets are sold in person at the Cathedral Shop, open 10.30am to 4.30pm Wednesday to Sunday, so the shop’s hours are the tower’s hours. There is no online booking. The cathedral now calls it The Campanile.
Victoria station is five minutes further west.
Millbank and the Thames path
South along the river from Parliament towards Tate Britain, and much the quietest walk in Westminster — most visitors turn north at Parliament and never come this way.
Tate Britain is free and open daily 10am to 6pm. It holds the national collection of British art and the largest collection of Turner anywhere, in the purpose-built Clore Gallery — if Turner is why you came to London’s galleries, this is the building rather than the National.
The Tate Boat runs from the pier outside to Tate Modern every 40 minutes, taking about eighteen minutes, and it accepts contactless. It is a river bus rather than a tour and it is the best way to travel between the two.
Millbank Tower and the Victoria Tower Gardens are on the way, the latter holding the Burghers of Calais and the Buxton Memorial.
Pimlico is the nearest station to Tate Britain, five minutes, rather than Westminster — which is a fifteen-minute walk back along the river.
Where to eat and drink
| Spot | Style | Price | Why go |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Cinnamon Club | Fine-dining Indian | £££ | In the old Westminster Public Library; book ahead |
| Regency Cafe | Traditional cafe | £ | 1940s tiled interior, full English, cash-friendly queues |
| The Red Lion | Historic pub | £ | Whitehall pub used by MPs; division bell on the wall |
| Tate Britain Cafe | Museum cafe | ££ | Fifteen minutes south along the river, and much calmer |
| Seven Dials or Soho | Anything | — | Genuinely: walk north for dinner |
See all 10 places to eat and drink in Westminster
Getting there
By Tube. Westminster station sits directly beneath the bridge on the Jubilee, District and Circle lines. St James’s Park is better for Buckingham Palace and the park. Charing Cross puts you at Trafalgar Square, at the top of Whitehall.
Best exit. From Westminster station, take Exit 4 and you emerge at the foot of the Elizabeth Tower. Exit 1 puts you on the bridge for the walk to the London Eye.
By river. Westminster Pier is right by the bridge, with Uber Boat services east to Tower Bridge and Greenwich. Often more pleasant than the Tube — see the river boats guide.
How long to spend, and when to go
| If you have | Do this |
|---|---|
| Two hours | Bridge, Parliament Square, Whitehall, Trafalgar Square |
| Half a day | Add Westminster Abbey and St James’s Park |
| A full day | Add the Churchill War Rooms and the National Gallery |
Best time: Before 09:00 for photographs without crowds, and the best light on the Palace of Westminster from the east.
Avoid: Sundays if you want to go inside the Abbey. Also check for state occasions and remembrance events, which close roads across the whole area.
Map of Westminster
Open the map40 places: 10 places to eat · 12 things to do · 12 hidden spots · 6 places to stay
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Eat & drinkThings to doHidden LondonStay
What's on in Westminster
Limited runs and the annual fixtures. Anything already finished is removed automatically.Links marked ad are affiliate links. If you book through one we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never affects what goes on this list.
James McNeill Whistler
Not open yetWhistler gets a full retrospective far less often than his Impressionist contemporaries, and this one closes at the end of September.
Free for Tate Members. Price not on the listing page - check when booking.
LUMINISCENCE
Not open yetProjection mapped across the inside of Westminster Cathedral with live music - the unfinished blackened brick above the marble takes the light unusually well.
In the cathedral itself, which is otherwise free to enter. Closes 27 September 2026.
Diwali on the Square
Not open yetLondon's biggest single Diwali gathering, around 35,000 people, with the Mayor lighting the ceremonial lamp. City-hall-run and completely free, like Eid and Vaisakhi on the same square.
2026 edition confirmed for Sunday 25 October, 1pm-7pm. No ticket, just turn up.
The Peter Pan Cup
Not open yetSerpentine Swimming Club members race across open cold water on Christmas morning while the rest of the park watches in coats - named for the Peter Pan statue nearby and run since 1864. One of the only things happening in London on the day itself.
Spectating is free and unticketed; swimming is members-only with qualifying swims through the winter. Mid-morning by the Lido.
London New Year's Day Parade
Not open yetAround 8,000 performers - marching bands, cheerleaders, floats - walk the same 2.2-mile route every New Year's Day. One of the only major London events guaranteed to a fixed date you can build a trip around.
Free along the whole route; paid grandstand seats exist near Piccadilly. Starts around midday.
Zineb Sedira: When Words Fall Silent, Cinema Speaks
Not open yetFree, and the annual Commission uses the Duveen Galleries at a scale no room-based show can. Sedira represented France at the Venice Biennale.
In the free central galleries - no ticket.
Renoir and Love
Not open yetThe most significant UK Renoir exhibition in two decades - weekends and holiday dates will sell out, so book rather than stroll up.
Selected Friday evenings run pay-what-you-wish entry. Overlaps Van Eyck in the same building from late November.
The 90s: Art and Fashion
Not open yetThe YBAs and 90s British fashion in one show - a wider lens than the single-medium retrospectives, running through Valentine's week and half term.
Free for Tate Members; price otherwise unpublished when checked.
Vanessa Bell & Duncan Grant: Inside Bloomsbury
Not open yetBell and Grant carried the Bloomsbury Group's visual side, and the run spans Christmas to spring - a natural tie-in with our Bloomsbury guide.
Free for Tate Members.
Van Eyck: The Portraits
Not open yetThe first show ever devoted to Van Eyck's portraits - an unrepeatable claim, not marketing. Overlaps Renoir in the same building for two months.
Book well ahead for December-January dates.
Eid on the Square
Not open yetTwenty years running, and deliberately plural - Turkish, Middle Eastern, Malaysian, Indonesian, North African and South Asian communities share one stage rather than a single homogenous Eid. BSL interpretation and access are built in.
The 2026 edition ran 30 May. The 2027 date will fall roughly eleven days earlier and is not yet published - do not guess it.
Trooping the Colour
Not open yetThe parade everyone knows - the useful detail is the two rehearsals on the preceding Saturdays. The Major General's Review and the Colonel's Review are near-identical dress rehearsals with a fraction of the crowd.
2026 ran 13 June with rehearsals 30 May and 6 June. 2027 date not yet announced; the mid-June Saturday pattern holds.
Royal Gun Salutes
Not open yetHorse-drawn guns arrive at the gallop, fire blank rounds at ten-second intervals, and leave - dramatic, free, and unknown to most visitors because it is never marketed as an event. The Tower fires 62 rounds the same day.
Recurs on the same handful of dates every year, which makes it one of the easiest free spectacles to plan around. Hyde Park salutes usually fire at noon - check royal.uk for each date.
St Patrick's Day Parade and Festival
Not open yetMore than 50,000 people watch bands from the UK, Ireland and the US process a mile and a half to a full afternoon of live Irish music in Trafalgar Square. Mayor-produced, so free start to finish.
2027's parade should fall Sunday 14 March by the usual pattern - unconfirmed until London.gov publishes it.
BST Hyde Park
Not open yetOne massive act per ticket, in central London, and back at your hotel by midnight - no tent, no fields. Lineups announce only a few months out, so it suits shorter-lead planning.
Between headline days the site runs Open House - free midweek entry to the arena with screens, bars and food. Worth knowing if you are in the park anyway.
Remembrance Sunday at the Cenotaph
Not open yetThe two-minute silence is the famous part; the veterans' march-past afterwards - thousands walking past the Cenotaph by association, for hours - is far less crowded to watch and at least as affecting.
Whitehall fills early for the ceremony itself. Arriving late morning for the march-past is the quieter way in.
Trafalgar Square Christmas Tree
Not open yetNorway has sent this tree every year since 1947 as thanks for wartime support - a real, continuous piece of diplomacy rather than decoration, usually lit by the Norwegian ambassador. Carol groups sing beneath it most December evenings, unticketed.
Tree up in late November, lit in the first week of December. The carols rota is published by Westminster council.
West End Live
Not open yetFull numbers from whatever is running in the West End, performed by the actual casts on an outdoor stage, for nothing. The programme is exactly as good as that year's theatre season.
Unticketed and rammed - the square reaches capacity by late morning, so go early to a specific show slot. Run by Westminster and the Society of London Theatre.
Battle of Britain Anniversary Flypast
Not open yetA Spitfire and Hurricane from the Memorial Flight pass low over central London on the Sunday nearest the anniversary, with no publicity beyond RAF and Abbey channels. Most people who see it have no idea it happens every year.
Timing publishes quietly via the RAF; The Mall and the bridges give the clearest sightlines.
Beating Retreat
Not open yetThe evening version of Trooping the Colour almost nobody outside London mentions - pipes, drums, cannon and cavalry at dusk, with a senior royal taking the salute. Ticketed, which keeps it far smaller than the parade itself.
Tickets via the Household Division; the two evenings differ slightly in programme.
Diwali on the Square
Not open yetFree dance, music and food in Trafalgar Square for one of the largest Diwali celebrations outside India, run by the Mayor's office.
Free and unticketed. The date follows the lunar calendar and the nearest convenient Sunday, so it shifts between October and November.
Things to do in Westminster
Beyond eating and drinking. Free things are listed first.Links marked ad are affiliate links. If you book through one we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never affects what goes on this list.
Changing the Guard
FreeGuards in bearskins and a full regimental band handing over the palace, free to watch, and one of the few genuinely free set-piece spectacles in London.
Does not run daily and is cancelled in heavy rain - check the schedule the same morning. The railings are five deep by the start; the Victoria Memorial steps and the Mall give a better view.
National Portrait Gallery
FreeThe national collection of portraits, from Tudor monarchs to living musicians, reopened in 2023 after a three-year redevelopment. Free, and quieter than the National Gallery next door.
Round the corner from Trafalgar Square and often overlooked in favour of the National Gallery, which is why it is the calmer of the two.
St James's Park
FreeA resident pelican colony first given to Charles II by a Russian ambassador, and the view from the Blue Bridge back to Buckingham Palace and forward to Whitehall.
Free. The pelicans are fed daily in the afternoon near Duck Island, which is the one thing worth timing a visit around.
Tate Britain
FreeThe national collection of British art from 1500 on, free, and holding the Turner bequest - which is the largest collection of one artist's work anywhere in Britain.
Permanent collection free, exhibitions ticketed. The Tate Boat runs from here to Tate Modern in about fifteen minutes and is far better than the Tube.
The Supreme Court
FreeYou can walk in off Parliament Square and sit at the back of the highest court in the land while it hears a real case, for nothing and without booking.
Free, no booking, and almost nobody does it. Court sits weekday mornings in term; the exhibition in the basement is open whether or not a case is running.
Buckingham Palace State Rooms
Summer onlyThe nineteen State Rooms the King still uses for official entertaining - the Throne Room, the Picture Gallery, the Ballroom - open to the public only while the court is away.
SUMMER ONLY, AND IT SELLS OUT. Opening is normally July to September plus limited winter dates, and tickets go on sale months ahead. Standing outside for Changing the Guard is free and year-round - that is a separate row.
Churchill War Rooms
The underground rooms the war was run from, shut up in 1945 and largely untouched - the Map Room still has the pins in it from the day the lights went out.
Timed tickets and it sells out days ahead in summer. Allow two hours; the audio guide is included and worth using.
Flight Club Victoria
18+ in the eveningThe one genuinely fun thing to do around Victoria, in an area otherwise built entirely around getting people onto trains.
Two minutes from Victoria station, which makes it the easy choice when a group is arriving from different directions.
Lane7 Victoria
18+ in the eveningBowling, crazy golf, beer pong, interactive darts and a hidden basement arcade - the widest spread of games in this half of Westminster.
Family-friendly in the day and over-18 in the evening; check the switchover before bringing children after work.
Westminster Abbey
Every coronation since 1066, seventeen monarchs buried in it, and Poets' Corner - plus the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Galleries up in the medieval triforium.
Ticketed for sightseeing, but FREE if you attend a service - Evensong most weekdays, no ticket, and you sit in the quire. Closed to sightseers on Sundays.
Westminster Cathedral Tower
A lift 64 metres up the campanile of a striped Byzantine cathedral, with a view over Westminster that hardly anyone queues for - and the cathedral itself is free.
The cathedral is free; the tower is a small charge and the lift means no stairs. Half-finished blackened brick interior above the marble is deliberate - the money ran out.
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Hidden Westminster
Free, self-guided and easy to walk past without knowing it's there.
28 Days Later's Empty Westminster Bridge
Filming location28 Days Later (2002) - Jim's walk through a deserted London
The single most iconic shot of the film - Cillian Murphy's character crossing a totally empty Westminster Bridge toward Parliament. No CGI: the crew held up early-morning traffic for brief windows over several days to get the streets genuinely empty.
A public bridge, always accessible - obviously never empty like the film today.
28 Days Later's Horse Guards Parade Scene
Filming location28 Days Later (2002) - Jim wandering through deserted central London
Jim trudges through here and up the Mall to the Duke of York Steps, past useless drifting banknotes - part of the same empty-London sequence as the Westminster Bridge shot.
A public parade ground, always accessible outside ceremonial events.
55 Whitehall
Filming locationSkyfall (2012) - the rooftop chase above Whitehall
The government building Bond scrambles across the roof of during the attack on the inquiry. Guides still call it the Department of Energy and Climate Change, which was abolished in 2016 - the building stands, the department does not.
A government office with no public access. This is a look-up-from-the-pavement location on Whitehall, free and always visible, five minutes from Westminster or Charing Cross.
Ada Lovelace's St James's Square Home
Blue plaqueAda Lovelace (1815–1852), mathematician and pioneer of computing
Lovelace's notes on Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine are considered the first published algorithm intended for a machine - a real claim to "first computer programmer".
A private/institutional building - viewable from the street only.
Admiralty Arch
Filming locationChildren of Men (2006) - the drive through the checkpoint
Theo is driven through crowds and a security checkpoint here, in a film that imagined a militarised London a decade before anyone found that plausible. The arch was built in 1912 as a memorial to Queen Victoria.
Free, always visible; the central gate opens only for ceremonial processions. It is being converted into a hotel, so the scaffolding is not permanent. Charing Cross, two minutes.
Admiralty Building
Filming locationThe Ipcress File (1965) - Harry Palmer is summoned
Where Michael Caine's insubordinate spy gets his orders, in the film that invented the bespectacled, working-class alternative to James Bond. The building is the old naval headquarters at the end of The Mall.
Government offices, no public access. Exterior only, free, always visible from The Mall or Horse Guards Parade. Charing Cross, five minutes.
Banksy's Flag-Blinded Statue
Street artA bronze-effect figure stepping off its plinth, face obscured by a flag - confirmed by Banksy in April 2026
Appeared overnight in April 2026 and was confirmed as Banksy's own within a day - a suited figure stepping off its plinth with its face wrapped in a flag, widely read as a comment on blind patriotism. The newest and most-visited piece on this list.
Out in the open on a public street - drew huge crowds on arrival and its long-term fate (left in place, protected, or removed) was still unclear as of this write-up. Check it's still there before making a special trip.
Central Lobby, Houses of Parliament
Filming locationSuffragette (2015) - the lobbying scene
The octagonal hall at the heart of the Palace of Westminster where the suffragettes confront the political machine. It was the first time a feature film had been permitted to shoot inside Parliament.
You can reach Central Lobby free by asking your MP for a meeting or attending a debate - that is the lobbying right the scene is about. Paid tours also run on Saturdays and in recess. Westminster station.
Chopin's Last London Address
Blue plaqueFrédéric Chopin (1810–1849), composer
Chopin stayed here during his final visit to London in 1848, a year before his death - a quiet corner of St James's with an outsized musical footnote.
A private residential building - viewable from the street only.
Gladstone's Home
Blue plaqueWilliam Ewart Gladstone (1809–1898), Prime Minister
One of the grandest addresses on the plaque map - Carlton House Terrace overlooks The Mall, a short walk from Westminster's core sights.
A private/institutional building - viewable from the street only.
Institute of Contemporary Arts
Filming locationBridget Jones's Diary (2001) - the book launch
The Nash terrace on The Mall where Bridget delivers her catastrophic introduction to a room of publishing people. The ICA is a real arts centre and the bar she flounders in is a real bar.
Free to enter the building, bar and bookshop; exhibitions are ticketed. Closed Mondays. Two minutes from Charing Cross, through Admiralty Arch.
Joseph Conrad's Victoria Home
Blue plaqueJoseph Conrad (1857–1924), novelist
Conrad lived here in the 1890s while working as a merchant seaman, before Heart of Darkness and Lord Jim - a short walk from Victoria station.
A private residential building - viewable from the street only.
Killing Eve's Old MI6 Office
Filming locationKilling Eve (2018-) - Eve and Bill's original office, off Trafalgar Square
A narrow street just off Trafalgar Square used for Eve and Bill's original MI6 office in series one - easy to walk straight past without noticing it's there.
A private/commercial building - viewable from the street only.
Killing Eve's Perfumer (Floris)
Filming locationKilling Eve (2018-) - Villanelle visits Floris
Floris is a genuine royal-warrant perfumer that's traded on Jermyn Street since 1730 - Villanelle's visit in Killing Eve used the real shop, not a set, which is unusual for the show.
A working shop with normal retail hours - worth a browse regardless of the show.
Lancaster House
Filming locationThe Theory of Everything (2014) - Hawking receives his honour
The Nash mansion used as Buckingham Palace, which it stands in for so often that The Crown used it for the same purpose. Its state rooms are more lavish than the real palace's, which is why.
Government hospitality venue with no general public access; it opens for occasional Open House weekends. Free to see the exterior from Stable Yard Road. Green Park, five minutes.
Malaysia House
Filming locationThe Living Daylights (1987) - the exterior of Universal Exports
The building used as Universal Exports, the shipping company that was MI6's cover identity through the older films. It sits on the corner of Trafalgar Square, which makes it the least covert secret headquarters imaginable.
Exterior only. Free, always visible, on the north-west corner of Trafalgar Square, two minutes from Charing Cross.
Ministry of Defence Main Building
Filming locationNo Time To Die (2021) - Bond goes to see M
The real MOD, used as itself rather than as a stand-in, which the Bond films rarely bother with. A vast Portland stone slab between Whitehall and the river that most visitors walk past without registering.
No public access whatsoever. Exterior only, from Horse Guards Avenue or Victoria Embankment, free and always visible. Five minutes from Embankment or Westminster.
Nancy Astor's Home
Blue plaqueNancy Astor (1879–1964), first woman to take a seat as an MP
Astor was the first woman to sit in the House of Commons - the plaque sits in the same St James's Square as several other notable addresses.
A private/institutional building - viewable from the street only.
Parliament Square
Filming locationV for Vendetta (2005) - the march on Parliament
Bridge Street and Parliament Street were closed overnight to film the masked crowd converging on Westminster. The mask has since escaped the film entirely and turns up at real protests in the same square.
Free and open at all times, though the square is often partly fenced for works or demonstrations.
Pickering Place
Filming locationCruella (2021) - Wink opens the door onto the square
London's smallest public square, reached down a wood-panelled passage beside Berry Bros & Rudd, used for one of the film's robberies. It is gas-lit, and it was reputedly the last place in London where a duel was fought.
Free, always open, though the passage is easy to walk past. Green Park, five minutes. Berry Bros has been selling wine on the corner since 1698.
Scotland Place
Filming locationHarry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007) - the Ministry of Magic visitor entrance
The narrow street off Whitehall where Harry and Mr Weasley climb into a red telephone box and descend into the Ministry. A genuine dead end behind Great Scotland Yard, and the reason it was chosen is that it looks like nowhere.
Free, a public street, always open. The telephone box was a prop and is not there. Two minutes from Charing Cross.
Sir John Gielgud's Westminster Home
Blue plaqueSir John Gielgud (1904–2000), actor
One of the defining Shakespearean actors of the 20th century, later known to a much younger audience for Arthur - a plaque a short walk from Westminster Abbey.
A private residential building - viewable from the street only.
The National Gallery
Filming locationSkyfall (2012) - Bond meets Q in front of The Fighting Temeraire
Bond and Q sit on a bench in front of Turner's painting of a warship being towed away to be broken up, and the scene makes its point about obsolescence without anybody having to say it. The painting is on permanent display and free to see.
Free and open daily, with one late evening a week. Ask at the desk for the Turner rooms - they get asked constantly.
The Treasury Building, Great George Street
Filming locationSpectre (2015) - the government exteriors
The Edwardian government block off Whitehall stands in for the security establishment Bond spends the film fighting. The Churchill War Rooms sit underneath the same building.
Viewable from the street; the building is not open to the public. The War Rooms below are ticketed and need booking ahead.
Trafalgar Square
Filming locationWonder Woman (2017) - the Armistice celebrations
Dressed as 1918 London for the film's closing celebration. The square has appeared as itself in more productions than almost anywhere else in the city.
Free and open at all times. The National Gallery on the north side is also free.
Trafalgar Square's "Smallest Police Station"
Hidden gemA hollowed-out lamppost built as a covert police observation post in 1926
Tucked into the square's southeast corner, this booth was built in 1926 from a hollowed-out ornamental lamppost so up to two officers could quietly watch the square during demonstrations. It's often billed as "Britain's smallest police station", though it never technically had that status.
Free, visible from the street, easy to miss entirely if you don't know to look for it - it looks like a lamppost.
Where to stay
Convenient for sightseeing, quiet at night, and short on evening life — most of Westminster empties after office hours.
- Victoria — The main hotel cluster, ten minutes south-west, with good rail and coach connections.
- Westminster and Whitehall — A handful of large hotels near the river. Central and expensive.
- Waterloo and the South Bank — Across the bridge, better value, and much more open in the evening.
Cheapest first. Prices are a typical starting rate per night, not a quote.Links marked ad are affiliate links. If you book through one we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never affects what goes on this list.
The Georgian House Hotel
££TownhouseBreakfast includedA nineteenth-century family-run townhouse whose lower ground floor holds the Wizard Chambers - four-poster beds, candles and potion bottles, the closest thing London has to a Harry Potter hotel.
The Wizard Chambers are SPECIFIC ROOMS, not the whole hotel - book them by name or you will get an ordinary (perfectly nice) townhouse room. Minutes from Victoria station.
St Ermin's Hotel, Autograph Collection
£££HotelAccessible roomsReached down a tree-lined courtyard off a busy Westminster street, with an elaborate plasterwork ceiling in the lobby and a genuine wartime intelligence history - MI6 met here.
Between St James's Park and Victoria stations, both walkable. The courtyard entrance means it is quieter than the address suggests.
The Rubens at the Palace
£££HotelAccessible roomsDirectly opposite the Royal Mews, a two-minute walk from Buckingham Palace and under two blocks from Victoria station.
The closest genuinely comfortable hotel to Buckingham Palace and the Royal Mews on foot. Traditional, family-run styling rather than a design hotel.
Corinthia London
££££HotelAccessible roomsTwo Michelin Keys, a Baccarat chandelier of a thousand crystals in the lobby, and a spa running across four floors - the largest of any London hotel.
Between Trafalgar Square and the river, so Westminster and the South Bank are both walkable. Seven penthouse suites sit at the top.
Raffles London at The OWO
££££HotelAccessible roomsThe Old War Office on Whitehall, where Churchill planned D-Day and Ian Fleming worked in naval intelligence, converted into 120 rooms with butler service.
Nine restaurants and bars on site, several open to non-residents - the cheapest way into the building without a room. Directly on Whitehall, so Downing Street and the Churchill War Rooms are a walk.
The Goring
££££HotelAccessible roomsStill owned by the Goring family after four generations, with a private garden behind and Buckingham Palace round the corner - the Princess of Wales stayed here the night before her wedding.
The only London five-star still in the hands of the family that built it. The garden is residents-only; the dining room is not.
Make a day of it
Combine Westminster with
Walking times are from the centre of Westminster. Each of these works as an afternoon once you have finished here.
South Bank
10 min walkStraight across Westminster Bridge for the London Eye and the river walk.
Covent Garden
20 min walkNorth up Whitehall past Trafalgar Square to the Piazza.
Belgravia
20 min walkWest past Victoria for Eccleston Yards, Elizabeth Street and the quietest streets in London.
Soho
25 min walkNorth for dinner once the monuments close for the day.
Suggested three-hour walking route
- Start: Westminster station, Exit 4, at the foot of the Elizabeth Tower.
- Westminster Bridge: Walk halfway across and look back for the classic view.
- Parliament Square: Return and circle the square to Westminster Abbey.
- St James’s Park: North-west through the park to the blue bridge, then up to Buckingham Palace.
- The Mall and Horse Guards: East along The Mall to Horse Guards Parade and Whitehall.
- Finish: Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Arriving at the Abbey on a Sunday. Closed to sightseers. Monday to Saturday only.
- Not booking the Churchill War Rooms. Timed slots sell out well in advance.
- Photographing Big Ben from directly underneath. Cross to the far side of the bridge; you cannot fit the tower in from the station side.
- Standing at the Palace railings for the Guard. By 10:30 you will see nothing. Watch from the Victoria Memorial steps, or go to Horse Guards instead — but only Monday, Wednesday or Friday if you want the full ceremony rather than the shorter inspection.
- Eating beside Westminster Bridge. The restaurants immediately around the bridge are the worst value in central London. Walk to Regency Cafe or head north.
- Taking the Tube one stop to Waterloo. Walking across the bridge takes ten minutes and is the better experience.
Common questions
Where is the best view of Big Ben?
From the eastern end of Westminster Bridge, on the South Bank side, looking back across the river. That gives you the Elizabeth Tower and the full length of the Palace of Westminster in one frame. The Westminster station side puts you too close to fit the tower in. Early morning has the best light and the fewest people.
Can you go inside Westminster Abbey on a Sunday?
Not as a sightseer. The Abbey is a working church and closes to visitors on Sundays, opening only for services, which anyone may attend free of charge. Plan your sightseeing visit for Monday to Saturday, and check for closures around state occasions.
Is Big Ben the tower or the bell?
The bell. Big Ben is the great bell inside; the tower has been officially called the Elizabeth Tower since 2012, and before that was simply the Clock Tower. Everyone calls the whole thing Big Ben anyway.
Do I need to book the Churchill War Rooms in advance?
Yes. Timed entry slots regularly sell out days or weeks ahead and walk-up tickets are frequently unavailable. Book online before you travel. Allow at least 90 minutes inside, plus airport-style security on the way in.
When does the Changing of the Guard happen?
At Buckingham Palace, usually at 11:00, on varying days depending on the season — check the Household Division schedule before going, as it is cancelled in bad weather. Horse Guards on Whitehall does the full mounted ceremony only on **Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 11:00** - other days at 11:00 are a shorter inspection rather than a full change. There is also a free daily inspection at **16:00** at Horse Guards that most visitors never hear about.
